It has been well documented that a large number of vehicle-animal accidents, especially car-deer accidents, occur in selected areas. Many of these selected areas are in rural locations. The accidents occur when motorized vehicles, such as cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc. hit or strike large animals that are attempting to cross a road. Such accidents can occur at any time but primarily seem to occur during periods of low light, such as either early in the morning, in the evening or after dark. The animals are mostly wild animals such as whitetail deer, mule deer, antelope, buffalo, etc. However, sometimes the animals are domestic animals, such as cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, etc.
Many government departments and agencies try to mark certain roads, roadways and highways by using yellow warning signs mounted on vertical posts. These warning signs are positioned off the shoulder of the road at eye level but are sometimes difficult for an approaching motorist to see. In many counties, there are known locations where every year a large number of vehicle-animal accidents occur. Automobile insurance companies have been vigilant in trying to arrive at a better solution to reduce the number of such vehicle-animal accidents. However, certain areas, because of the surrounding topography, the climate, lack of human population, adjacent farm land, proximity to forest land, etc., tend to support a healthy wild game population. It is known that wild animals tend to travel or migrate vast distances in search of food, water and mates during mating season.
The states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Virginia, Texas and Florida have relatively large deer populations. Some of our western states, like Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Utah have healthy mule deer, pronghorn, antelope, elk and moose herds. On certain public roads, roadways and highways that pass through such rural areas, government personnel, such as employees of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) or elected public official from local towns, cities, municipalities, states, etc. have identified certain stretches of roads, roadway and highways where there is a high probability of animal crossing. Whitetail deer are the most prevalent wild animal and their path of travel can be erratic especially in the fall when the rut is on. Inclement weather conditions, such as fog, haze, rain, sleet, snowfall, etc. can also contribute to such accidents because they tend to diminish a motorist vision. Furthermore, many rural roads are relatively narrow with very little shoulder area, follow an undulating surface topography and/or have a number of tight curves, and all of these factors increase the likeliness of vehicle-animal accidents.
A number of solutions have been proposed to rectify this problem but such solutions have met with minimal success. The use of warning signs has proven futile. The use of audible alarms or flashing lights positioned in deer crossing zones appear reasonable but most have proven to be too expensive to implement. Tunnels constructed under the roadways have met with a fair amount of success in western states where herd migration occurs but again are too expensive to implement on a large scale for non-migrating wild animals. Lastly, noise devices which are suppose to emit a high frequency sound that only animals can hear, and which are designed to be mounted on the front bumper of a car or truck are almost worthless.
Now, a new and unique animal crossing warning zone and a method of applying it to the upper surface of a roadway have been invented which can reduce the number of vehicle-animal accidents, especially between cars and whitetail deer.